Posted on 02/22/2017 9:35:50 AM PST by servo1969
Milo didn't do what he's accused of doing -- but he's being punished nevertheless. That's just wrong . . . and so ickily Leftist.
Sometimes the Lefties in this country get lucky. They have a truly dangerous adversary like Milo Yiannopoulos, someone who bravely and wades into the fight, and does so in such a way that he exposes to the maximum number of people how monstrous the ideological enemy really is -- and then self-righteous "conservatives" take him down without the Left having to lift a finger. This is just so wrong. You'd think that people, especially those on the Right, would have learned something from the Trump "grab them by their..." debacle but, nooooo, they just fall into the same traps over and over.
Ask yourself what it was that Milo did to earn his banishment from the same halls and institutions that once welcomed him with open arms. You may be surprised by the answers. (I should state here that I've read the entire transcript of Milo's more controversial remarks. You can too. Here is his defense and clarification.)
Did Milo confess that he molested a child? No. He never said he did. He has asserted steadfastly and strongly that he never has. And no one has crawled out of the woodwork claiming that Milo molested him. Lena Dunham confessed in her autobiography that she molested her little sister . . . but no one cared.
Did Milo actually molest a child? See above. He has not said he did so; he has said he never would do so; and no one has contested anything he said.
Did Milo say that he wanted to molest a child? No. Ne never said he did. Indeed, he's consistently asserted that he finds the very idea repugnant. And again, no one has crawled out of the woodwork claiming that he and Milo had a great conversation once upon a time about their desire to molest a child.
Has Milo insisted that pedophilia isn't really that bad, which is what one of Slate's now-erased writers did? No. He has never advocated pedophilia, although he's made it clear that an older gay man introduced him to gay sex (whether before or after puberty is not clear). Where Milo differs from Lefties when it comes to his having been victimized is that he doesn't define himself by what happens to him. What Milo has done, though, is to be one of the loudest voices arguing about protecting children from sexual predators, starting with allowing predatory pedophile males into little girls' bathrooms, which is something the Obama administration insisted was a sexually confused man's civil right.
Has Milo tried to foist a gay agenda, with all of its bizarre behaviors on America and America's children? No. Certainly Milo's persona is all about being gay. He's not the one, though, who's advocating that we start teaching small children about gay sex or that we put books touting explicit gay sex in the library's at America's public schools. If that's what you want, you have to go to Kevin Jennings, whom Obama appointed as his "Safe School Czar." Part of Milo's shtick is to stop pretending that gays are saints.
Did Milo talk about pedophilia in a podcast? Yes. Yes, he did, although not in the way the self-righteous crowd claims.
In the context of that broadcast, Milo made two highly accurate statements, the first of which has nothing to do with pedophilia. What he said is that it's very common for older gay men to mentor younger gay men, whom Milo called "boys." Anyone who's spent time around gay men, as I have given a lifetime in the San Francisco Bay Area, understands that there's a whole gay culture around older men and younger men. A good example would be Barney Frank and his "boy"friend, who was 30 years younger than Frank. If gays want to talk about prepubescent children, believe me, they know how. "Boy" in this content manifestly meant older (i.e., legal) teen/young adult, not a child. Once Milo clarified that point, it should have been over.
The other conversation Milo had was a linguistic one: He said, accurately, that pedophilia is a very specific type of sexual perversion that involves lusting after prepubescent children -- something he specifically disavowed. The conversation then touched upon post-pubescent children. It was in this context that Milo said that the way the law draws bright lines ignores the fact that children mature sexually at different ages. As I noted in my post yesterday about Milo, watching the children in my community grow up has shown that some kids are completely physically mature by 12 or 13, while others are still working on physical maturity by 18 or 19.
Milo characterized himself as sexually mature at an early age, which may have been true. Or it may have been the case that, since he himself was sexually molested, he became more sexually aggressive, which is often the case with children who are molested. Milo also said that, if you're gay, having an older mentor is helpful, especially if you are moving into the sexual side of your nature -- which is also true, and most gay men (as Milo said) will admit that if pressed.
What Milo never said is, "I know all this about little boys and spotty young teens because I've had sex with dozens of 13-year-old boys and helped them discover what it means to be gay." He never said that, nor did he say anything like it. This was a hypothetical discussion about a factual reality in the gay world.
Having unloaded these truths, Milo nevertheless completely agreed that the legal age of consent is a good thing and lands on the right age. The unspoken conclusion driving that statement had to have been that, given the broad spread in age of sexual maturation, it's appropriate for the law to err on the side of caution to protect the maximum number of children from sexual predators.
If I'm correct that Milo was thinking the above, well, he's right -- he's right about it for same-sex relationships and he's right about for heterosexual relationships. Pedophilia's vile and we need to protect the greatest number of children from it. Given that some kids mature slowly, the law should reach out to accommodate them. I agree. You agree. Milo agrees.
And lest I get dragged down into the muck by people saying that I'm excusing Milo and therefore advocating pedophilia or teen sex, no, I'm not. Pedophilia is an unutterably evil thing to do to a child and ought to be punished to the full extent of the law. As for me, when I was a child and now that I'm a parent, I liked (and like) the idea of a 1950s world. Back then, the media didn't relentlessly sexualize children and teens. Society as a whole encouraged young people to hold on to their virginity until they were married -- or, if they didn't seem destined for marriage, to wait at least until their mid-20s and to be safe and discrete. People are still people and things will always happen, but the cultural norm was to delay sex so that young people could mature.
Looking at the detritus of today's sexual revolution -- which our media still pushes -- I believe that teen sex (i.e., post-pubescent or adolescent sex) is emotionally damaging, and that's true whether teens are partnering with people their own age or older. One of the nicest things I ever read was Steve Crowder's post about the wonders of saving sex for marriage.
Despite my values, I'm neither blind nor stupid. I know how the world works. I therefore know that a significant portion of the students in my kids' high school, if they escaped middle school with their virginity intact, did not graduate from high school that way.
With that real world in mind and with what Milo actually said in mind, rather than what he's accused of saying, remind me why he got destroyed? Why did Simon & Schuster dump what would have been a massive money-maker? Why did half of Breitbart's staff suddenly start screaming about scarlet letters and exile?
Why? Because people jump to conclusions and then they like to virtue signal.
Let me take you on a little walk back in time, all the way back to October 2016, when suddenly Donald Trump was a rapist or the next best thing. "He confessed!" insisted the Left and the self-righteous Right.
In fact, Trump did not confess to any misdoing. In response to Billy Bush's goading him on in the company of a bus full of men, after first saying he, personally, loves to kiss women, Trump then stated a truism: When you're rich, women will let you do anything. Or, to quote him, he said, "And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything. . . . Grab them by the p*ssy. You can do anything."
Don't believe me? Watch this video, which goes through every second of the misrepresented conversation to find the truth -- and the truth is that Trump played along with the locker room talk, and talked about (unsuccessfully) trying to buy his way into a woman's bed, but never -- never -- confessed to rape or assault.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok1Gd0CQsiM
Not only did Trump not say that he grabbed women's p*ussies, it's fun to speculate what he might have said if that conversation had continued. Given that he was buddies with the Clintons when this conversation took place, he might have said something like, "As for me, I don't do that kind of thing, but I've seen Bill Clinton get away with it every time. Women see him and they let him do anything he wants. He's grabbed more women by the p*ssy than . . . well, the number is yuuuge."
Milo just got Trumped, and it's as wrong with Milo as it was with Trump.
You know what else hacks me off about this whole thing? People are desperate to knock Trump and Milo off a moral pedestal even though neither man ever made the slightest attempt to climb up on such a pedestal. Neither pretended to be anything but vulgar or crude. And both have been open about they fact that they love sex with the objects of their desires (women for Trump, men for Milo), and are perfectly willing to think and talk about it when asked.
Despite the facts on the ground, people are shrieking as if these two men were up in the pulpit every Sunday thundering about sexual licentiousness and sinning against God. There's no hypocrisy here and they shouldn't be punished as if they were hypocrites.
In Trump's case, the American people spoke and said that they fully understood that Trump is what, in the old days, used to be called a "man's man." They also said that they understood that talking about something is not the same thing as acting upon it. They were willing to believe that Trump did nothing wrong.
Who's going to speak out for Milo, though? Although he says he decided voluntarily to leave Breitbart, and he did it with great grace, the fact is that the self-righteous ones on Breitbart's staff drove him out. And who's going to publish his book, which makes important points about behaviors that are antithetical to freedom? When it comes to attacks on freedom, the Left is infinitely worse than the Right, but things like this -- where the Right does the Left's dirty work -- remind us that conservatives are not without sin. Far from it.
Milo, here's a message from me to you: Don't give up the good fight. You did nothing wrong. You were your usual self: blunt, crude, outrageous, and outspoken, but you were not criminal or perverted. Keep fighting the good fight for intellectual freedom. If we drive people like you out of the public conversation, not only are we less free, but all of our baser instincts, instead of being addressed, fester and grow increasingly rotten.
I want to close, not with more of me, but with a beautifully stated email I got from one of my readers, a woman I've come to admire greatly over the years:
I really appreciated your going to bat for Milo over this most recent controversy. I have a lot to say on the subject of pop culture's encouragement of adolescent/post adolescent sex -- both straight and gay -- and the mistaken confusion of adult/post puberty sex with pedophilia. FWIW, I have a strong impression that a large percentage of the "pedophilia sex" scandal in the Roman Catholic church was actually sex between gay priests and post-puberty boys. Something I absolutely condemn, but it's not pedophilia.
When my children were adolescents, I was aware of more than one instance of teen age girls being active with men over 18, indeed, over 21. I'm sure Teen Vogue and Teen Cosmo wouldn't blink a lash about that. I think Milo, once more, has struck a nerve, exposing the hypocrisy of the cultural/political left. I hate to see him hung out to dry.
One more thing: This seems apropos. Know who your enemies are, right?
Did you listen to the tape? He clearly said it on that. He wasn’t advocating that the age be lowered, but he said that for mature boys such relationships for boys below the legal age could be positive instead of negative.
Why don’t you do your research before getting all worked up with a slew of rhetorical questions.
And FWIW I’ve worked with the same population in the same location. That is correct and Milo addressed that as well. He just crossed the line in saying it could be a good thing for younger boys too.
It seems that the public is being inoculated against something.
Not having read his statement I can’t comment.
What I do know is he absolutely infuriated the left. Must have been a good messenger even though perhaps flawed.
I appreciate your valiant attempt here. In general I would agree, this is a classic leftist hit job, but carried out by the right for the most part. CPAC’s failure to get their story straight with the gay issue goes back way beyond this, and it’s appalling that yet again, they fall into a controversy over it.
That said, I do understand the difficulty of making a full-throated defense of Milo here. I would actually say that this is Exhibit A of why in my opinion, the conservative position is not so much pro- or anti-gay, but just a recognition that some parts of the human experience are fundamentally private, and while technically legal in this case, still not really fit for public consumption.
I don’t support his thoughts on that matter at all. But I cannot discount other efforts at calling out the left and what damage they are doing to our society. Maybe someday he will also find out that his path on a personal level has been wrong also. I don’t know. But I’m not in a mood to cast stones right now.
We, and Trump, have a country to save and rebuild.
Great article, thanks.
"[I hate] this one-size-fits-all policing of culture. This arbitrary and oppressive idea of consent, which totally destroys, you know, the understanding that many of us have, of the complexities, subtleties and complicated nature of many relationships." - Milo Yiannopoulos (discussing underage sodomy)
I like Milo. I can even say I love him. However he quite clearly crafted a poison-tipped sword and then provided it to our enemies to use against both himself and us.
He is a gifted and conflicted man engaged in full-bodied naked wrestling with his own conscience. For his sake, and all of ours as well, I pray his conscience will win.
That's what I would pray for anyone.
Milo Yiannopoulos got punished despite having done nothing wrong!
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Ya know. There are good arguments for and again Milo. But this is stupid. “Nothing wrong”?
Not even the most rabid buttsecks lovin’ prohomo, sex before eight or it’s too late, creepy pervert can honestly say Milo has done “nothing wrong”.
Now. Shall I read the article or just assume it only gets worse than the headline?
Oh, well, alrighty then.
>>>a year , maybe two at most. Agreeing with Milo’s lifestyle would have been unthinkable on FR. I have absolute Truths that I live by. They will not and cannot change, because they are based on God’s Word.<<<
God’s Word is quickly becoming anathema among many of our FReeper brethren. And like many prophets of old, Bible believers are becoming their enemies.
People like Milo are not conservatives . . . they are grifters that talk the talk only. When it serves him better he will go to the other side - and likely blame ‘Christians’ for it - as will many FReepers (I’ve already heard some say it).
sfl
Did you listen to the tape?
Milo was a victim, who evidently does not want to be seen as a victim. What a terrible crime he has committed!
I told people 20 years ago that allowing the left to conflate pedophilia and hebephilia would have consequences.
But noooo, people were too smart for that, to believe that it is an important distinction.
“Why? Because people jump to conclusions and then they like to virtue signal”
People jump to conclusions, and then they like to virtue signal. Words to remember.
“Openly endorsing pedophilia is doing plenty wrong.”
Okay. Now show where he did that.
Milo is kinda like a clown in a traveling circus. You see him in the big top and you smile, laugh and are entertained throughout the show until he disappears behind the curtain. Then, after the show, by chance, you walk back behind the circus tent and find him drinking a beer and taking a smoke break with all the other carnies and circus performers.
You knew all along who he was. But suddenly, beyond the lights and glamour of the midway, that cheerful clown isn’t quite as entertaining as he once was.
Of course, the same could be said for one reason or another about the vast majority of us, but I digress...
“I dont approve of that, but they are consenting adult.”
Same-sex attraction disorder is a mental disorder. Those who suffer from it are not competent to consent, any more than children or the severely retarded.
Takei tickles tiny tacos?
It is funny that this long article makes a point of explaining away Milo’s use of the term “boys” without ever noting that he repeatedly modified “boys” by saying “younger boys” and “young boys”. The author would have use believe that in the gay world, ‘young boys’ and ‘younger boys’ refers to adult men. IDK about that, nor do I want to know about that.
You don’t have to agree with his lifestyle to agree with him on other points, such as he strong defense of FREE SPEECH.
I found Milo a too extreme for my tastes, but one has to keep in mind he is a professional provocateur in the service of free speech. So he acts outrageous and says outrageous things ... in order to make a point about FREE SPEECH.
I think he is a perfect spokesperson for FREE SPEECH because he embodies what so many on the left claim to support and yet they don’t support free speech if it is coming from someone that is either conservative or perceived to be conservative .... even a little bit conservative.
He shows up their hypocrisy on FREE SPEECH over and over and over again ... and that is work that needs to be done by someone.
If you are a person who, like me, thinks FREE SPEECH (and free thought) is our most important right, then you want all the spokespersons you can get, with the highest profile you can get, to be constantly pounding the media, the elites and the left on FREE SPEECH.
Combatting the homosexual agenda is a different cause, and one that will not be possible if we do not have FREE SPEECH rights. And make no mistake, our free speech rights are under attack 24/7 by the left who want to control our speech, our thoughts and dictate to us what our motives are at all times (eg tell us we are racists, homophobic, etc).
The ONLY way we can combat this onslaught is to fight for FREE SPEECH. We must be ever vigilant on FREE SPEECH. We cannot take our eye off of the ball here. Sure, there are other issues but FREE SPEECH is paramount to them all. Without that we have no rights at all.
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